Ballarat’s most architecturally significant buildings are set to open their doors to the public, as Open House Melbourne extends its program to the regional city.
The inaugural Open House Ballarat program will run between 28 and 29 October 2017, and will be structured much like the well-established Melbourne program.
Over the course of the weekend, visitors will have the chance to see private houses, commercial buildings and landscapes throughout Ballarat that they wouldn’t usually have the chance to see, and some of which have never been open to the public. The two-day event will be the first time that Open House Melbourne has partnered with a regional city.
“The Open House experience will invite people to explore our outstanding locales, showcasing Ballarat’s rich history and reflecting how we live and work,” says Samantha McIntosh, City of Ballarat mayor.
Ballarat has a particularly rich stock of heritage architecture, which will no doubt provide a drawcard to the program. According to McIntosh, Open House’s expansion into the region will afford visitors the opportunity to “challenge their opinion about architecture, build their knowledge about Ballarat, and be informed about future developments that will impact the city”.
Open House Ballarat follows the 2017 Open House Melbourne event, which in itself was an extension of past programs. For the first time this year, Open House Melbourne Weekend broached outlying suburbs of Melbourne as far as Brighton, Ringwood, Dandenong and Frankston.
A full building list and program of activities for Open House Ballarat will be announced in September.
